


ride on your sound

by lightinthedarkness



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: Bandori AU, Gen, High School AU, I made Eizen a student in this for numerous reasons, The top being because I wanted to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 21:11:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17128817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightinthedarkness/pseuds/lightinthedarkness
Summary: “A drummer must be steady, constant, a lighthouse for those who have lost their rhythm.”Or Velvet makes sure her and her band mates actually get some practice in.





	ride on your sound

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the After School Heroes! Zine!

Eizen leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling with a small groan. He really should’ve cut class, but then he knew Edna would get onto him if she found out...and she always found out.

That didn’t stop him from feeling the bags under his eyes pulling his body into his desk. God he was tired.

A cough rumbled in his lungs, coming out in a short hack that made him freeze in his chair.

Oh No.

Like Hell he was getting sick. Eizen quickly dug through his bag, trying to find his masks and cough drops. Another groan as he shook empty packets.

“No, no, no…”

“Looking for something?” The voice made him jump, the smirk on Velvet’s face irritating him to no end.

“What are you doing on the Third Year’s floor?” Eizen slammed his hands on his desk, rising up to meet her gaze.

Velvet rolled her eyes, her smirk replaced with her usual scowl as she lifted her hand, showing him two packages, “Fine, I’ll just take these back and-”

Eizen pulled them out of her hands before she could finish her sentence, giving the packages a proper look over. One was a simple pack of cough drops and the other…

“You keep losing your disposable masks and I could hear you coughing at the end of practice yesterday,” Velvet crossed her arms, “So, I got you a reusable one, you still need to wash it but that’s better then buying pack after pack...I even got a design I thought you’d like.”

He looked over the black mask, noting the skull jaw design covering it. Eizen refused to look at her as he took a cough drop and popped it into his mouth, “Thanks.” he mumbled.

“Just don’t lose it.”

“I won’t lose it!” He hated how whiny he sounded but dammit she needed to give him more credit!

She gave him a short, small smile, “Alright,” was all she said before turning towards the door, “See you at practice.”

He stared at her form for a moment before waving, “See ya.”

~~~

Magilou finished the last note of the song, letting the tingle in her fingers run through her body. 

“I think we got it,” she heard Eleanor as the noise of the instruments died down, “Or at least, there were fewer mistakes this time.” 

Magilou rolled her eyes, “A mistake here a mistake there, like it matters,” she wiggled with her protest, “As long as we sound good~”

To make her point, Magilou picked a few strings, attempting a quick solo. Any attempt at sound quickly diminished with a loud screech. Magilou saw her bandmates cover their ears and joined them, closing her eyes for a moment.

She opened them with a shriek, staring down at a curled string running along the neck, “My baby! My poor baby!” she whined, clutching the instrument as she fell to her knees.

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad,” she heard Rokurou through her crying. “Just restring it.”

“I ran out of strings last week!” she cried, “I haven’t had a chance to get more either!” she sobbed.

“Oh my God will you stop whining?” she heard Velvet get up from her stool and rummage through her bag. When Magilou rose her head Velvet was crouched in front of her, a pack of strings in hand, “Hurry up, we should have just enough time to practice one more song.”

Magilou hesitantly grabbed the pack, looking it over. It was her brand…

“I didn’t expect you to be so...prepared.” Eleanor remarked, raising an eyebrow at the pack of strings.

“I always try to keep a pack of the strings Magilou and Rokurou use on hand,” Velvet mumbled as she headed back to her drums, “I mainly got them in case we needed them for shows, but practice works too...it’s whatever, can we just start practicing again?”

~~~

Rokurou opened the studio door with a yawn, lazily placing his case onto the floor. His sleepy expression turned to a pleased one when he saw two familiar figures in the room.

“How’d you two beat me here?” he asked Velvet and Laphicet, chuckling as he pulled his bass out of the case.

Velvet turned to him, “Work had to close early.”

He nodded, not minding the short answer. That’s just how Velvet was, he thought as he pulled the strap over him and pulled a pick out of his pocket. He was just excited to practice and was hoping to perfect their new song today.

That excitement lasted until he picked at the first string, a whiny, uncharastically low sound coming from the instrument. Rokurou raised an eyebrow, picking at a few more strings to check.

“Dammit,” was all he could say when he heard the same sound. 

“Didn’t you tune your bass?” He could hear Velvet ask. He turned to see her up from her stool now, hand on hip. Laphicet looked between the two teenagers, face scrunched up from the sound Rokurou assumed.

“I thought I did, but Kendo practice ran late last night and I must’ve...passed out before I could,” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “Sorry about that.”

Velvet sighed before sitting back at her stool and grabbing her drumsticks, “We have a few minutes before Eizen gets off his shift here, I’ll help you retune it.” as she said this, she tapped on one of the drums in a slow, steady rhythm.

Rokurou couldn’t help but smirk, “Thanks.” 

~~~

Now normally, Eleanor would say that her and Kamoana got along wonderfully. More often than not you couldn’t find a pair as close as the sisters, but even then they had their bad days.

Today was one such day.

“Why won’t you take me home?” Kamoana whined on the street, backpack abandoned on the road.

Eleanor could feel the gaze of the others on her and Kamoana and tried to ignore them, “I already told you, I have practice toda-”

“You always say that! Every day it’s practice, practice, practice and I hate it!” she wailed, nearly making Eleanor cover her ears.

What was she going to do now? When Kamoana had a temper tantrum it was hard for her to stop and everyone was waiting on her and she-

Seeing Velvet walk in front of her pulled Eleanor out of her head as she watched the older girl crouch in front of her sister. 

Oh no...she knew how snappy Velvet could get and that was not what Eleanor wanted to deal with right now.

“Do you wanna watch us practice?” the softness in Velvet’s voice took Eleanor by surprise. Kamoana stopped her sobbing for a moment as she looked at the other girl, “I let my little nephew watch us all the time, so it’s not a problem.”

Kamoana hiccuped, “Ca...can I see Eleanor play?”

There was a soft smile on Velvet’s lips as she patted the girl’s head, “Of course you would, and she’ll walk home with you once we’re done, deal?”

Though her eyes were still puffy and tears were still staining her cheeks, the smile Kamoana gave was far too bright to notice, “Deal!” 

~~~

“What are you looking at?” Velvet’s voice was even but tired. 

Phi looked away from her gaze, his smile refusing to waver, “I just think it was really nice of you to let Kamoana watch you guys practice.”

A scoff, “It got her to stop whining, so it was worth it...even if her cheering got a bit annoying…” Velvet mumbled the last part.

“Magilou seemed to like it awfully well.”

“Of course she did, anything that feeds her ego...I’m surprised she could fit through the door with that swollen head of hers.” 

Phi laughed for a moment before the two were surrounded in a comfortable silence, “It seems like you always have fun with everyone.”

She smirked, “When I’m not busy keeping everyone in line...yeah, I guess I have fun. 

“Velvet….I’m happy you auditioned.” it was a simple statement, but Phi could feel an odd weight in his words.

Silence overtook the pair once more for what seemed like forever until, “Yeah...I’m happy I did too Phi.”

~~~

Celica walked through the house silently, tiptoeing through the quiet shadows and keeping the blanket in her arms from falling. Her only source of light was the small rays pouring from a single room, her sister’s room.

She peeked through the door, smiling at the picture that greeted her. There was Velvet, asleep over the covers of her bed, surrounded by various papers. The light came from the lamp on her desk.

“A drummer must be steady, constant, a lighthouse for those who have lost their rhythm,” she mumbled to no one as she quietly draped the blanket over Velvet, “But a drummer must also make sure to take care of themselves so they can keep that rhythm,” she placed a gentle kiss on her sister’s forehead before making her way to the lamp, “I’m proud of you Velvet.” she whispered before turning out the light. 


End file.
